8BitDo Mechanical Keyboard and Mouse Review

[@SwitchAndLever]

Hi Kari! Nice to see you review these! As the actual designer of the mouse you are 100% correct in all your points. It's definitely a bit of an ergonomic, ahem, nightmare? That's definitely a word I'd use! I would sincerely hope no one uses this for their daily runner, unless they have already deep callouses in their hands. The story behind the origin of the mouse is back when I was studying industrial design, and making a computer mouse was the first course in being allowed to use the workshop tools (milling machines, lathes, saws, etc), way before we did any ergonomics course. Would I design it the same way again today, almost 16 years later? Probably! Because making an ultra sleek ergonomic NES-inspired mouse would probably destroy the whole point of eliciting nostalgia, and hours spent with the little hard soap brick of the NES-gamepad digging into your hands as you were griding Excite Bike. Kudos to 8bitdo though, they held very true to my original design.

[@paper_gem]

You invented the mouse?! OMG. Thank you! You are a genius!

[@WeerdWulf]

​@paper_gem the mouse was invented by Douglas Englebart (1925-2013) in the early 1960s, and patented in 1970.

[@SwitchAndLever]

@@paper_gem designed, definitely not invented. Talented engineers at 8bitdo made sure it was producible, made the circuit board, chose components, and took care of everything beyond deciding upon the design, which included beyond the shape things like fit and feel, materials, button placements, etc.

[@ejsickler]

This is so cool. Thanks for sharing! I think the design is perfect.

[@stephenshelottiii3272]

Honestly this mouse is not as unergonomic as you would think. I have large hands and this mouse fits perfectly. At least you didn’t use a track ball. That would have been a nightmare.

[@Retroguyuk75]

"We came second, out of two, technically last".... Classic statement, love it!! You're so good at explaining things Kari. Another amazing video, well done .....🤩😁

[@Mr-Mag00]

Thank you Ms. Kari I found your videos about a month ago and subscribed right away, thanks for the throwback it brings me back to the school library in the late 70's and using a phone to hook into the modulator? I forgot what they called it 🙂. I have all of the original keyboards IBM C64 etc. those clicks all ❤ to my heart.

[@OriginalGrasshopper]

I was just thinking about “Typing of the Dead” (for Dreamcast) the other day….and now your video pops up! 🤯😁

[@chrislaustin]

Hey Kari, your shirt is most excellent and as a kid from the 80's, your videos are always most outstanding, so Party On!

[@ejsickler]

Great review! Enjoying your channel so much. I watch with my 9 year old so he can see what I grew up with. Thanks for keeping older tech alive and giving some of us a good dose of nostalgia.

[@DigitalDiabloUK]

Never heard of Typing of the Dead. What a great way to learn how to type.

[@mrt.7146]

Pure stroke of inspiration using Typing of the Dead for a keyboard test 🤩

[@TheRodneyHayes]

I like seeing young people into retro tech. It’s a total Ready Player One moment. Best of luck on your channel.

[@Zorunel]

i bought the mouse when I work on the go with my Surface. My biggest problem is that I am left-handed and have to use the mouse with my right hand, but I already knew that before I bought it. Mine came with the matching mouse pad 🙂

[@projectbuubl5352]

the most impressive device on this channel is the pink television in the background ;)

[@doswelk]

"Also coming soon in the C64 Edition..." pauses video and orders the C64 one! :)

[@lurkerrekrul]

I can think of one use for the large buttons: Put them on the floor so that you can tap them with your foot to activate various actions in games. People used to do that with a second joystick on the C64, where the spacebar was used in some games, and a joystick in port one would register as the spacebar when you pressed the fire button.

[@seancampbell4904]

Great video, loved typing of the dead was a tad difficult for me and my handicap of dyslexia though I was a little freaked out of your hands not moving in the reflection of the Disney tv screen in the outro lol.

[@karilawler]

omg ... I see what you mean. 10 mins of footage, in 30 secs has this time stopping effect, very strange.

[@StephenSE9]

I've just come home from buying a computer keyboard and then I discovered your video, Kari! Cue the intro music to The Twilight Zone. Oh, and I'd probably assign a keyboard shortcut to one of the buttons. Alt+F4 😊

[@SproutyPottedPlant]

One as play/stop and one as record for DAW use?

[@karilawler]

"Alt+F4" is the only way I've found to exit out of "Typing of the Dead" lol ... so that would be useful

[@StephenSE9]

@@karilawler It does look like a panic button, Kari 🤭

[@Lazyman1975]

You are awesome and smart. Bring me back to the old days probably before you where born...lol... I absolutely love the fact that you love all this retro stuff.

[@maddrugamers]

I've been using this keyboard here in Brazil for some time and I really like it!

[@ImDaCoolDad]

Hi Kari, I love your videos, they are so professional and your knowledge is inspiring. I think the big buttons would lend themselves to a quiz style game. Keep up the great work! I look forward to seeing what comes next!

[@RefugioVillegasIII]

I like using old fashioned keyboards. Brings me back some memories as a kid using the Mac computers at school.

[@djbawb]

love that you busted out Typing of the Dead with this thing! I have this keyboard as well, it's actually pretty nice! the macro mapping function for the big buttons is a lot of fun. for fun I wired it up to a powershell script that loaded an audio file so my pc had an "alarm button"

[@buddybleeyes]

Very impressed to see typing of the dead show up! Keep up the fantastic work! 😄 edit: my go to keyboard... I fell down the rabbit hole and ended up getting a zoom65 v2.5 and tried hundreds of single switches, and I ended up using the husky linears. Can't recommend them enough, they are honestly underrated switches imo. Mainly for gaming, for typing on they take abit of getting used to since they are so light

[@reeboothemad5514]

Perfect timing! I am currently debating getting a mechanical keyboard and was wondering what the 8BitDo was like since I very much enjoy their controllers. So thanks for the video and... be excellent to each other!

[@karilawler]

No problem ... and party on dudes!!! lol

[@KaitenKenbu]

Man I've been meaning to play it for typing practice but watching youtube is too addicting so I'll watch you play it.

[@WHIIDQX]

NES Keyboard and Mouse extremely cute♪ Thank you so much for introducing me to this.

[@GeorgesChannel]

Great and very fun video, Kari! That typing game was really funny :) Really love the keyboard and the games you have chose. My go to keyboard is a modern Cherry Stream. Nice, sleak and quiet!

[@Jimmys_TheBestCop]

Favorite switches TTC Silent Frozen v2. Linear and dead silent. So satisfying. Mouse I go with huano brown with yellow dot for silent mouse clicks and a kailh red dust proof encoder for smooth and close to silent scrolling.

[@andreaskrallis9140]

you are the best love all your vids please keep on keeping on. .luv ya

[@huntingresonance]

I've bound the super buttons to be used as the paddles in pinball games for my son. He absolutely loves it!

[@karilawler]

That sounds like an awesome use of the buttons, thanks for sharing.

[@pen25]

you keep knocking these out of the park.

[@retrotap]

Satisfyingly clicky :) The Super Buttons are cool

[@TheRiddle1981]

Best t-shirt so far! "Excellent!"

[@HellOnWheel]

I'm hitting CTRL-C / CTRL-V all day long at work. It would be kind of cool to have that giant 2-button pad just for that function.

[@vertecies]

Then you only need printer and you are good to go. 😅

[@rockosgaminglogic]

Mix it up with Shift-Insert and Shift-Del

[@rickgreer7203]

At one point doing that, I really enjoyed using a two button foot pedal...

[@Cyrus_Nagisa]

love mine, its my first tripped down keyboard, and I ended up loving it, mouse, not so much, but they both go with my Pi5 NES cased PC so its real nice to have

[@Lazyman1975]

I jad a friend that could blast through typing of the dead. I just used it as a fun way to learn to type.

[@sting64az]

Very nice video and awesome explaining the details about this keyboard and the download software. I heard of some keyboards such as this but never really got in to them. I enjoy watching your videos keep them coming.

[@johnhudson7055]

I've been thinking about getting that set myself for a while now just because of the NES.

[@_ariosto1519]

These keyboards were amazing! 🤩 highly ergonomic 😅 the original ones I mean!

[@DerkuiDerkui]

Excellent review!

[@JrokkShenanigans]

The 2.4 dongle works like a dream! Bios boot menus will pick it up

[@ADF_Cable]

Thanks! I still LOVE my G19 that's about 14 years old..... The screen with cpu and gpu stats is still perfect and I haven't found an equivalent as yet,

[@whosestone]

The Commodore looking one...those deep dish SA keys...I lurve it berry berry much

[@joecan]

Oh That C64 KB looks good too and comes with a control stick

[@bingsterc7621]

Thank you, Kari. I can finally purchase this keyboard for myself. 🙏😊❤️

[@burninator1983]

Love the 8BitDo controllers (especially the Pro 2 and M30) and have been looking at their keyboards for a while but haven't bought one yet. If they do an Amiga themed one after the C64 style, I am quite likely to buy one. Great review Kari!

[@karilawler]

Thank you

[@cyan_galaxy]

The buttons are really just a bit of fun! I like them, even if they are not that useful

[@StacyClouds]

Great review, and I love the typing game! For me those big buttons woulld likely be linked to the build and unit test shortcuts in Visual Studio - do I need them? No. Do I still want them: absolutely!

[@ugzz]

Nice showcase! I bought one of these along with a trackpad, then i modeled and 3d printed a tray for them. Now i have my own (much heavier.. but much cooler) Logitech k400 alternative :) . Plus, the software lets you set a profile to use mouse clicks. So i can hold it naturally and use the trackpad with my right thumb and use keys on the left side for clicking. I use ~ and 1 for left and right click. Also configured the B and A for "next" and "previous", which works in many audio and video programs. I don't use the big buttons but had thought of using one as a foot switch maybe..

[@gordonm2821]

What attracted me to that keyboard was the colour scheme. However not used a proper keyboard in years. I always use my laptop keyboard.

[@kiddcapri1711]

Dutty boi

[@JimmyNuisance]

I am 100% getting the C-64 version. Those big buttons can be good as foot switches I think, if you need to mute your mic or whatever when you're playing games online.

[@SproutyPottedPlant]

Yeaaaa DAW controls!😊

[@seancook6879]

So on Amazon there are USB foot pedals for $15 that are purpose built. There's also 3, 4 , 5 pedal models. I don't recommend using the super buttons for foot pedals

[@LeMonsieurPoulet]

As a guitarist, the giant buttons are godsends I will use them as pedals to control my music softwares while playing. The stick in the C64 version looks interesting too.

[@terry-]

Great! Modern Pc to CRT monitor would be really interesting.

[@maxmouse3]

Great video! And keyboard! I wish it was VIA compatible. The new "M" version looks amazing, I already preordered it hahah Also: Having BT + Wired + 2.4GHz is awesome, specially if you have 2 PCs, a tablet or something like that :)

[@iwantagoodnameplease]

I was thinking about getting one of these, so thanks for the review. Save me searching for one! :) FYI, 8Bitdo is meant to be pronounced like Nintendo. The company got their start making Nintendo clone controllers and modkits for NES and SNES controllers. Even today the majority of their controllers are Nintendo style ones for Switch / PC.

[@randomactsofgaming845]

I am a professional software developer, my wife bought me this keyboard as a gift because of my love of classic video games and it has been my daily driver since. It's actually a quite good keyboard, the only issue I have with it is the missing num pad. As for the big buttons, I of course set them to crtl-c and ctrl-v

[@keithjackson1180]

Love the idea for how you use the buttons

[@SwitchAndLever]

I don't know if you've seen, but 8bitdo just released an external numpad which looks perfectly at home next to the keyboard 🙂

[@randomactsofgaming845]

@@SwitchAndLever I did not know that and now you are on my friends list!

[@Dizzy_Hites]

Cool vid, I would love to find out about your 3D printers/maker stuff and any examples of makes, especially if it's retro related!

[@WhiskeyNixon]

I have an 8BitDo arcade stick. I like it a lot. It works with my Switch, Xbox, and PC. It's wireless or wired via USB, and it comes in at a very modest price for an arcade stick. I'd recommend mmend it.

[@paranoidgenius9164]

I'm a spiritual person, & her soul is older than her body! Her education exceeds her years. I watch & listen & I'm bowled over by her wisdom at such a young age. How about building a giant NES joypad at the right scaling for the big red action buttons?

[@GitDatPC]

Need a giant spoon for the Track & Field buttons🥄 😁

[@SprocketGames]

I think the large 2-button attachment might be for video game speedruns as a foot pedal for marking when an achievement in the game is reached.

[@rrivillox]

That's so retro pretty gadgets 💛. Thanks you so much for showing us. Greetings. :8)

[@jackfry]

You're a breakout star in my books

[@PrinzMidas]

Thank you for this video!

[@ciaduck]

I'm using a GMMK v2 96%. It's only slightly larger than a TKL. You can't really go wrong with keychron boards. Great variety and quality. I love tactile switches. (I want to feel it in my face while I type.) Switches I'm using Boba U4 Silent Tactile switches. Very nice haptic feel, and quiet.

[@henokhsatrio8804]

I love the commodore version. Hope someday can afford it. I just wish that they can have better support for linux

[@carzak]

I have no idea how someone your age seems to have the knowledge and interests of a 50 year-old computer nerd, but I'm here for it. You already know how to put together a professional-quality video too (which is more than can be said of most of those old nerds hehe). And the Bill & Ted shirt... where did you come from?! Or should I say "when?"

[@karilawler]

Would you believe, Bill & Ted was one of my favorite movies growing up ... little 11 year old me got hooked on finding out more about certain historical characters, and so became quite the expert on Genghis Khan, Napoleon and Joan of Arc lol

[@NadiaGear]

I have to admit, I still prefer to call them 8-bit-dough to rhyme with Ninten-dough as originally intended. But I understand why the company no longer acknowledges that to avoid potential liability. Either way, it is a great keyboard and an even better video about the keyboard! Typing Of The Dead really takes me back! I recently picked up a Sinden light gun in hopes of playing some of the original House Of The Dead games I loved as a kid!

[@philallen7626]

If only there was a UK ISO version, I'd be all over this. Sadly, the US layout messes with my muscle memory too much.

[@greyxfox]

typing of the dead , nice nostalgia there

[@davidjwidmann]

Back in the day, playing Track & Field in the arcade, we'd rock a pencil between the two buttons during running games. Worked every time. 😅

[@-Astro--]

Haha we did the same 😃👍

[@Codisrocks]

There was an arcade version that used buttons? I didn't think that game was ever meant to be played with a controller.

[@-Astro--]

@@Codisrocks yeah but in the arcade if you were there then you knew. How things are now so boring don't you think? We had to stretch our quarters/ ten pence!

[@Codisrocks]

@@-Astro-- just seems weird to play in any other way than stomping on the floor.

[@-Astro--]

The buttons were not on the floor

[@lilliputmoss]

Looks like a really solid keyboard! If my 15 quid mechanical ever breaks I might go for an upgrade..

[@lionhear7]

I have both. the NES one that you reviewed and the Famicom one 🤗

[@rob55mn93]

Kari Your Definitely A Star 🌟 ⌨️🖥️📺🎮👍®️

[@glypo]

Such a shame they don't do an ISO/UK layout, looks ace!

[@DevGeekTV]

Great review !!!🤩

[@strandalx]

🙂 after 4 days? Can easily say it's my main go to keyboard now. Bought the C64 versions and the Numpad

[@patsprankcalls]

I would love to see a video on your 3D printers, I've been thinking of getting a P1S while they're on sale.

[@balazs_richter]

It would be nice to see old joysticks and gamepads too!

[@linkhatchet]

Ah I want that super Mario land wallpaper please!

[@ciaduck]

Those buttons would probably be great for streaming. Nice easy target to hit for FX.

[@ciaduck]

May also be great for footswitches. Speedrunners might get a kick out of them.

[@AncapDude]

I want that Aperture Science super heavy button to jump onto.

[@TrinhNguyen-85]

I would use the two large buttons as foot pedal. In multiplayer game, it could be your push-to-talk button

[@AndrewNoel-i4t]

You get a like for the Bill & Ted shirt!!

[@philwatts]

Love the keyboard! The mouse, not so much. Can only think of a quiz game for the big ol' buttons.

[@tinblue]

I just bought the C64 edition of this keyboard.

[@ModernClassic]

I think it's hilarious that 8BitDo shows the NES and Famicom versions of this keyboard with an IBM PC on their web site, not the IBM PC version... and it wouldn't even work with an IBM PC anyway! I might actually get one of these as my next keyboard; I'm currently using a Steelseries Apex with linear switches, but I've been a clicky guy all my life so this ticks a lot of boxes for me. Clicky *and* retro *and* smaller than a real vintage keyboard (of which I have several, but they're generally huge compared to modern "retro" stuff).

[@MiddleAgedSwedeGoesForAWalk]

Great review! I really like the look of the c64 version of the keyboard, but as a Swede, until there's a version with a Swedish layout it's not really an option for me, and if I were to really nitpick then I would prefer a keyboard with the numpad integrated instead of having it as a separately sold accessory. My only thought when seeing the two button accessory was also Track & Field so I'm also rather curious about what others use it for.

[@johnparker007]

Those two massive buttons, could perhaps be fun for use controlling the left/right flippers on pinball games.

[@aukondk]

I've been tempted by these keyboards but the real turn off is the ANSI layout of the keys. I'm used to the vertical enter key of the ISO layout. I have a few mechanical keyboards now but only the really cheap ones (30 bucks or so). Proper keyboard customizing is an expensive hobby but the market for 100$ prebuilds is getting pretty healthy for beginners to dip their toe into it.

[@dominikschutz6300]

Typing of the dead 😊 I think it's based on House of the Dead 2 which we played in the arcade around 1999 😊

[@bghoody5665]

Cool keyboard although I doubt I'd ever use those large buttons or mouse either.

[@se4m0nkey]

I have one and pre ordered the number pad to match :)

[@MartinStephenson1]

As a software dev I'd use the huge buttons for build and run.

[@TheRetroBristolian]

Nice keyboard but it's a shame it doesn't have the full sized 'UK' enter key

[@yoke466]

I've had this one since it came out, and just got the C64 version as well. I've also got the new number pad C64 on pre-order. Great keyboards, though I expect some keyboard snobs would find some sort of fault with them somewhere 😶

[@XanderCrease]

This keyboard looks gorgeous! Had my eye on it's Nes Grey/Red/Black/Cream goodness since pre-release but for £90?😬 I just can't quite justify it...yet😮‍💨

[@Urko2005]

lol i remember playing track and field type games on my ZX Spectrum , it was a button mashing affair , i could have done with one of those button gadgets.

[@grappydingus]

The big buttons might be good to map as "buzz-in" buttons in two player quiz games.

[@ricardo.mazeto]

I would put those giant A and B buttons under the desk and use with my feet while playing other games, configured with macros.

[@TonySloan-c5s]

I would set one button for the period key and one for enter so i can write dramatically

[@damianbutterworth2434]

Hi Kari, I have a Speccy without a keyboard and managed to type in LOAD "" without a keyboard using jumper cables shorting out the pins on both ribbon cable sockets. Now I know which pins create which key I`ve thought about putting the rubber key ZX Spectrum inside a modern keyboard.